Greetings from beautiful Broome!

Our road to supreme relaxation began in Derby, where there isn't that much to do, and we had the most relaxed, easygoing neighbours you could ever ask for in Oxy and Roxanne.  They and their lovely orange bus with the Eagles influenced name are doing the big trip and they are having a great time.  Cheers to you, new friends :) 

With much anticipation we headed to Broome on Saturday...a date that had been booked since late October last year!  We are very impressed with Cable Beach Caravan Park - the amenaties are superb (I almost took a photo of the shower lol), the sites are quite shady and large, and there is a fascinating array of set-ups as we have hit serious grey nomad town with many here for the Winter...gazebos, boats and tarps abound!  I don't blame them because the weather has been wonderful and warm, and the waters nice and cool for a dip...and stinger free I might add. 

Saturday afternoon brought another much anticipated date, which was with the Cusworth family who we have been following digitally since before we left home - they from Perth and us from Rocky.  We all enjoyed some drinks and the sunset at Cable Beach, and the children all had a great time playing together.  It was really wonderful to meet such a lovely family and we are certain that they will continue to have an amazing journey around Oz.  You too can follow their lovely blog at http://www.cusworthcaravancapers.wordpress.com/ 

That night, another amazing thing occurred.  My brother's partner had been telling me via Facebook that Ben was taking her somewhere secret, about 10 000 km away, for the holidays.  Could it be Broome?  Noooo, that would be too freaky!  Late that night, as I checked Facebook for news of where they ended up, I saw a link to Cable Beach Club Resort - which is over the road from us, and a post telling us all that this is where they ended up.  I couldn't believe it!  And have been so excited to see family...hint, hint, to any other family members that want to fly somewhere and meet up with us!!  So, I waited till morning to bother them too much...and went on my gorgeous morning walk along the beach...and who should I cross paths with, but Ben and Christine! 


All fresh from a morning walk...a lovely surprise for Charlie and Matt
when I brought Ben & Christine back to the caravan.

Ben is here to install live streaming video cameras above the sunset bar, which will be linked to the Resort's website and to Ben's website at Brisbane Storm Chasers http://www.bsch.com.au/  The Resort have asked him to come and do this, and he and Christine get a lovely holiday into the bargain.  It has been lovely to have some quality time with them both, as we live so far away from my family (they are in Brisbane, we are in Rockhampton), this has really been a most wonderful stroke of luck. 

As we are here for a whole week, we have really set up camp and have not felt under pressure to squeeze heaps in.  We have seen some beautiful sunsets already and have had some fun in the ocean and at waterparks.  We followed the camels along Cable Beach, and Charlie and I will go for a camel ride tomorrow.  Matthew is a bit unsure of the camels as yet.  So, we will let you enjoy the photos and will update you next week with what we have been up to.

Cheers,
Tanya & Tony, Charlie & Matthew

We picnicked on Fish and Chips and watched
the sun set at Derby.

Watching the sun set, by the jetty at Derby. 

Cable Beach and the requisite camel photo!

Just chillin'

Gorgeous, beautiful sunsets...I can't get enough of them!

Charlie enjoying the beach.

I hold very tightly to Matt's hand...he has no fear
of the waves!!



Charlie enjoying the free waterpark
at Town Beach



The Kimberley

They say that a bad week travelling is still better than a good week at work.  We have to agree.  I mentioned in the last post that Matt had an ear infection, and that he is atrocious when sick.  This proved to be so, and he has challenged us all; particularly last week. However, we already have our old Matthew back and life is great again.

We left Katherine on the Wednesday and drove West through Gregory National Park towards lake Argyle.  I hadn't read much about this area; it was quite beautiful.  Victoria River Roadhouse was too far away from Lake Argyle to stop there for the night, and we didn't like the look of Timber Creek...so opted for a free camp at Big Horse campground.  A big old red dust bowl...but next to the river so it had a tick in the Free Camps book.   Unfortunately we struck a pretty unfriendly neighbour, and did I mention the dust?  Matthew was in typical sick and therefore loud and demanding mode and there wasn't a lot for them to do.  I was thinking we probably should have opted for the van park at Timber Creek.  The boys had a few minutes of fun playing dust wrestling, then we fed and washed them (therefore pretty much running out of water) and all went to bed.



At least they got to have a bit of fun...



 Later that night, Matt had a bit of a cough and ended up vomiting - joy of joys, this is common when he is sick.   So all the clothes and bedding was stuffed into garbage bags to be dealt with at Lake Argyle.  Charlie had vomited the previous night in Katherine (probably from eating one too many sausages) so we were starting to feel a tad frazzled.  However, we made it through the Quarantine Checkpoint and on to Lake Aryle without any problems.  A bit of washing and cleaning and all was well again...except for Matt driving us crazy with his impossible behaviour.  We had decided to go on a sunset cruise on Lake Argyle, so threats were made and behaviours improved.  We all had a fantastic time and were so glad that everybody had been able to go. 



We all enjoyed a most magnificent sunset.

 So Lake Argyle worked it's soothing magic on us...and apart from the cough, Matthew seemed on the mend. 

I was sooo looking forward to swimming in this pool.
Unfortunately it was too cold :(



Our darling Matt with his rock and digger creation.

We needed to stay a night in Kununarra, to stock up before heading into the Bungles and further west.  This gave us the opportunity to go for a walk in another National Park and catch up on some much needed internet and mobile access.  Not having access can be a bit of a pain sometimes - making it hard to keep in contact with people. 

 


The little rock wallabies checking out
the rock formations behind our caravan park.

We were looking forward to arriving at the brand new caravan park just outside the Purnululu National park (Bungle Bungles).  Lots of people had never heard of it, there wasn't much word on the track about it...and it was quite pricey at $45 a night, plus an extra $5 each for the boys...but we believe it was worth every cent as we were closer and could spend the full day in the Bungles.  They had only been operating 6 weeks, but you could see they were trying really hard.  There was a campfire each night which always leads to much socialising.  The talk was all about:  how hard is it to drive in?  How bad is the road?  And you could tell that some of the menfolk who had opted to go on a bus tour in, were half wishing they were going to get the opportunity to tackle the 4WD track in themselves.  And, it WAS fun! It took 2 and a half hours to do about 50 km, there were over 30 creek crossings and lots of rocky corrugated roads...but it was still fun!!  Granted, because we only spent one day there (the boys can only handle so much walking) we did probably spend more time driving in and out than at the actual Bungles...but we don't really care 'cos it was fun!  Next time, the boys will be older and we will camp in there a few nights. 
 


On the walk into Cathedral Gorge. 

Cathedral Gorge:  magnificent!



Cathedral Gorge




Good old Pearl - she served us well. 



The largest of the creek crossings.

Matt really seemed to be going downhill again, so we opted to drive straight to Fitzroy Crossing so he could be checked at the hospital.  We had planned to free camp a night on the way, but felt that would be asking for trouble!  On the way, I noticed that Charlie seemed to have developed conjunctivitis.  What next????? 
Anyway, all was great at the hospital and armed with new antibiotics for Matt and eye drops for Charlie we headed onto Derby the next day. 
Some fresh sea air was just what the doctor ordered.  All is well now with us all and we are ready to head into Broome tomorrow for a week. 




Sunset at Derby

Hopefully now we will have more frequent internet access, so I don't fall behind with the blog posts again.  We have been really looking forward to the West Coast, as we really slow down.  I will leave you with a beautiful photo I took of Matt at Cathedral Gorge in the Bungles...we have always ridden a rollercoaster ride with that boy and we love him dearly!  Bless him :)


By the way..there is still some difficulty posting comments:  click on comments at the bottom of a blog post, write your comment and remember to add your name in the comment as you may need to select anonymous, then click on preview and it will ask you to type in a code word shown on screen.  Then your comment should be published and we get an email telling us there is a comment.  As I always say...it is fabulous to get any feedback at all whether via the blog, email or text/phone...so let us know what is happening with you :)

Cheers,
Tanya & Tony

Week Six:  Darwin/Litchfield National Park/ Edith Falls/Katherine

We loved Darwin!  There is so much to do and a lot of it free.  We did manage to spend some money doing the touristy thing, and on hitting the shops (quite exciting to be around so many after so many weeks on the road), but there is so much on offer for free as well. The down side of this, I guess, is that you do spend a lot of time travelling around trying to fit a lot of things in.  We have grey nomad friends who are staying in Darwin for 5 weeks, others who are staying for more even.  They have the right idea, I think!

We were very pleased with our spot at Howard Springs Caravan Park – on our own, near the playground, pool and a free gas BBQ.  Howard Springs is right near Palmerston, one of the fastest growing cities in Australia apparently, and you can see why.  One of the highlights there was a community market, with most of the stalls that are at Mindil Markets, on the Friday night.  With free entertainment and food to die for, it was great!  It is also easy to drive back towards part of Adelaide River from Howard Springs, and go on a Jumping Crocodile cruise.  This was highly recommended to us to do and we were not disappointed.  I started taking photos, but in the end I just wanted to watch, it was so amazing!  Tony and the Nikon were able to take faster shots, anyway!

Our spot at Howard Springs Holiday Park - pretty good, hey!

Antica.....pation!!!

Awesome!!!!

AWWW Mum, this is sooo cool!

Matt's standard face when Tony tries to photograph him.
We call him, 'One-eyed Jack'.

The crocs would come right up alongside the
boat.  We were so close.  It was UNREAL!

Another free thing to do is sit on Mindil Beach and watch the sun set.  Truly beautiful.



Tony and his photography off-sider, Matt.



We all thoroughly enjoyed the Museum and Art gallery, also free.  It had a great kid’s area.   



Sweetheart.  A MASSIVE croc. 



As well as the cruise, we handed over some hard earned cash to go into Crocosaurus Cove.  This we did after the Jumping Crocodile cruise and it was hard to match what we had seen on that.  But the boys absolutely loved it.  Charlie even got in to the water near the juvenile crocs and had a go at swimming near them.  I held a snake.  Not my favourite thing to do.



This is as close as Charlie would go:  peeking round the corner!




I look so relaxed, don't I?



We spent a great day out at Berry Springs.  We caught up with Peter and Sue, and as we were driving out of their caravan park we came across two other friends (Deb and Jeff who we had met a few times along the track!).  Such a nice surprise.  So we all had a beaut swim at Berry Springs, and Charlie and Matt wore me out nicely. 

 On our last night in Darwin we caught up with some very lovely people whom we had met on our travels, who were all in Darwin for the National Square Dance convention.  It was very colourful and entertaining, and as I have mentioned before – making wonderful friends on this trip is truly icing on the cake.   



Our friends are in the blue.




Pam and Graeme, on the far left...see you when we are on your side of Oz!



With some sadness, we left Darwin on the Sunday and headed for Litchfield National Park.  We had trepidations as quite a few people had told us that it wouldn’t be any good for the boys, and that you could see it in one day.  I was also concerned about the van park we were going to, having not been able to find out much on the Net.  Well, within about an hour of being at Litchfield Tourist park, I felt tremendously relaxed.  This does not happen often (being the mother of two rambunctious small boys and always seeming to have ‘house’ work to do).  It is a lovely little park, the closest one to the eastern entry to Litchfield National Park, with a lovely atmosphere.  We headed into the National Park itself in the afternoon, and were not disappointed by the beautiful waterfalls at Wangi (unfortunately closed to swimming) and marveling at the splendor of Tolmer Falls.  Tony checked out Florence Falls in readiness for heading there very early the next morning to take photos before the harsh sunlight got in there. 

Florence Falls



Sandy Creek



So Tony had a great time taking photos on his own, and the boys and I had a wonderful relaxing start to the day.  Win/Win.  After an early lunch, we all headed back in to Florence Falls.  We decided not to swim, as the water was quite cold and the south easterlies were still blowing.  I’m told they are called the ‘knock ‘em down’ winds as they come every year for about a month, and they knock all the tall grasses down.   The other reason we didn’t swim is that it is Matthew’s turn to have this awful cough that myself, then Tony have had… and Matthew sick is the absolute last thing we need!  He is atrocious when he is sick!  We walked down the 135 steps (not as hard as it sounds) to Florence Falls, where there were hordes of people – some swimming but most just enjoying the spot.  Then we took the Sandy Creek walk, following the easy path along the creek back up to the top.  I just can’t get enough of being near water, especially a beautiful and clear flowing creek such as this one.  There were plenty of spots where you could enjoy the creek in solitude, despite the area being quite busy that day.  It was just so wonderful and relaxing. 

We had allowed three nights for Litchfield, but found two nights stay to be enough.  This worked out well, as now we could stop one night at a free camp at Edith Falls, just north of Katherine.  Before we left Litchfield, though, we needed to stop at the Batchelor Health Clinic as Matthew had had a very unsettled night.  I strongly suspected an ear infection…so the non-swimming had come a bit late.  I could not believe the top quality of the health service.  Full checkup by a Registered Nurse, who was quite impressed by Matthew’s ear (I won’t go into the disgusting details) and gave us ALL the medicine we required – FOR FREE.  So with a big weight off our minds we were able to head to Edith Falls:  a great spot in the National Park at $9 per adult, complete with a proper amenities block.  We did a BIG walk (we weren’t prepared for how big, and poor Matt had to be carried for most of it), unfortunately skipped the swimming again as it was too darn cold, and had an early night.

Today (Wednesday) we headed back into Katherine to stock up, wash and clean.  We also spent a lovely few hours catching up with Mal and Laurice, who we thought we wouldn’t see again, but turns out we were both in Katherine at the same time.  The track can be a bit like that! 

Tomorrow we begin making the trek westwards (Lake Argyle, Kununarra, Bungle Bungles, eventually Derby then Broome).  Goodness knows what mobile and internet reception will be like.  There was none at Litchfield and Edith Falls…this does contribute to the relaxing J

 See you on the other side!

This is Charlie any chance he can get: up a tree!



Beautiful shot with the Nikon!